Unexpected
by purple.sunrise
Summary: Over her objections, Morgan halts Emily's assessment when he notices she is hurt. Emily refuses to explain what happened. Hotch is frustrated with something that occurred at home. Oneshot. 6th on the Hotchniss storyline.
1. Chapter 1

**Hope you enjoy this next part of the story.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

Hotch looked down into the empty bullpen through the window in his office. It was late and the rest of the team had left over an hour earlier.

It was later than Hotch generally stayed at the office if the team wasn't working on an active case. However, he knew today that Haley had taken Jack to her parent's house to make Christmas cookies with her mom and sister. It was an highly anticipated annual event for the 3 women. And he knew from previous years that Haley would be home no earlier than 11PM. So there was no need for him to rush home.

As Hotch finished signing off the files in front of him, his thoughts returned to a pressing matter- Emily's hand to hand and takedown and arrest procedure assessments. Hotch cleared time the following day for her and Morgan to get it done. As soon as that was completed, as long as he was satisfied with Morgan's assessment of her skills, Hotch was going to need to start rotating Emily more into the field.

He had needed to give her light field assignments on the case in Golconda, Nevada. He had tried to keep her with him as much as possible. There just hadn't been a choice based on the case. And that fact in itself emphasized to him that he could not put off the assessments any long. He needed to know what she could do. If she was ready to go into the field.

As Hotch was packing his bag to head home, Morgan texted back confirming the time for the assessment the next day. Looking at the late hour, Hotch chose to leave a message on Emily's desk instead of texting or calling her. She would see the note when she arrived in the morning. The session wasn't until the afternoon. Her arrival wasn't needed by a certain time as when they went to the gun range.

As long as they didn't get a call before the following afternoon, Emily could be on full field duty the next time they had a case. And Hotch still wasn't sure how he felt about it.

 **####**

The sudden harsh buzzing of her alarm clock roused Emily from her deep slumber. In the early hour of the day, the room is still dark. As she begins to roll over to turn off the obnoxious contraption, pain shoots through her torso. After quieting the alarm, she turns back over moaning, quickly remembers the events of the previous evening.

 **FLASHBACK**

 _As she walked through the grocery store parking lot, Emily had one focus- to get the items on her list and be back out of the store as quickly as possible. It had been a difficult week but she needed to pick up a few necessities before she could go home. The long hours at the BAU were starting to catch up with her and a good night's sleep was most definitely needed. Unfortunately for her, the long hours had also put off this grocery trip until it couldn't wait another day._

 _In her narrow focus, Emily completely missed the patch of black ice until it was too late. In an attempt to stay upright, she reaches out to grab onto something, anything. The object that she crashes into starts moving in a different direction. 'Oh crap a cart.' she thinks. But that thought occurs just as she crashes hard against the side of a car._

 **END FLASHBACK**

After a few minutes of lying motionless in her bed, Emily gingerly got up and shuffled off to the bathroom. After swallowing a couple of Motrin, she turned the shower on full hot. As she waited for the shower to reach the desired temperature, Emily examined her body in the mirror.

As soon as she looked at her reflection, Emily wished she hadn't looked. It was by no means the worse bruising she had ever had but it certainly wasn't good. Bruises covered her abdomen, back, side and arm from crashing to the side of the car. The area on her back looked the worst appearing deep purple from the impact with the sideview mirror. The other areas were various shades of pinks, reds and purples. Her side also had a small cut. 'Yeah, definitely explains why I'm so sore.'

At the end of her shower, Emily noticed less stiffness than when she first got out of bed. However, she did not feel anywhere close to 100%. A quiet paperwork day at her desk was what she needed or well a few quiet days.

Upon arriving at the BAU, Emily first went to her desk. Before she could walk away to go to the break room for coffee, she saw a post-it on her computer. The handwritten message immediately extinguished her hopes for a quiet paperwork day at her desk. Carefully, she sat in her chair and closed her eyes. Upon opening them, she looked back at the computer screen. Unfortunately the post-it was still there and it still contained the same dreaded message. Dammit. How was she going to pull that off today?

 **####**

Hotch was in his office when Emily enter the bullpen. He had come in very early, even for him. When he had arrived home the night before there was a message from Haley on the home answering machine. She had chosen to stay at her parent's house for the night and would return the following afternoon.

To say he was annoyed would be an understatement. Not because she had extended her visit with her family. He knew how important her family was to her. How close they all were. No, he was annoyed that she hadn't chosen call him at the office or on his cell to tell him.

It was frustrating after how many times Haley had called him at work for less important reasons that she had not call to let him know this directly. It had been early enough from the time stamp on the message that Jack would have still been awake. Hotch could have had a few minutes to talk to Jack and say goodnight. No, she had ensured that he wouldn't find out until he had already come home to an empty house.

And so far Haley hadn't responded to the goodnight text he had sent the previous night. Or answered her cell when he had called to say good morning to her and Jack. If he didn't hear from her before, he would try again around lunch time.

Looking out the window of his office, he noticed immediately that Emily was walking slowly and with more effort than usual. He continued to watch as she stopped at her desk and looked her computer. He watched as her facade dropped her for a few seconds. Then in a blink and you'll miss it moment, a look of fear before her mask was back up. Intrigued, he continued to watch as she gingerly sat in her chair, dropped her head and closed her eyes before looking back at the screen.

His concern was raised over her reaction to the note he left on her computer. While he couldn't put his finger on it, something was off with her. Her arrival while early for the team was late for her. Emily had been requesting for weeks to get into the field. She knew he required this assessment. So why the look of fear?

When Hotch broke from his musings, he noticed that Emily was busily working at her desk as if nothing had happened. After watching her for a few moments longer, he placed his concerns about her aside. There was an urgent situation in the file in front of him. A request for a phone consult from the police department in Tallahassee needing help with a profile on 4 recent murders.

 **####**

As she started to stand up to refill her coffee mug before the daily briefing, Emily could feel that some of the stiffness had returned to her body. Maybe sitting for the last 2 hours without moving hadn't been her best idea. Once upright she headed for the break room quickly. The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself by being the last one to arrive at the briefing.

As she walked into the conference room with her fresh cup of coffee, she noted that Garcia and Hotch were the only ones there. Taking a seat, she started to look through the cases they were going to be discussing in the meeting. As she was reading, Emily didn't notice the others start to walk into the room. She completely missed Morgan entering the room until he touch both of her upper arms as he started to say "so Prentiss it's you and ….". He did not finish his sentence at the shock when she flinched at his touch.

"Morgan, what the hell?" Emily exclaimed, glaring at him.

"Woah girl, are you ok?" Morgan responded, holding both of his hands up, looking at her worriedly.

"I'm fine. You just surprised me." Emily responded quietly.

But really she wasn't. He had managed to touch the bruise on her arm and then she bumped her back when she jumped up.

JJ walked to the front of the room and pulled the photos for the first case they were reviewing up on the screen. She turned back around and looked at the team sitting at the table.

"Everyone ready." JJ asked the assembled group.

"Let's get started." Hotch said only lifting one eye off of the file in front of him. He hadn't missed Emily's flinch to Morgan's touch. But now was not the time or place to address it. At least not if he expected to get anything other than 'I'm fine' as an answer.

 **####**

Looking at the clock, Emily notices that Derek should be arriving in the gym at any time. She had left her desk 45 minutes earlier. In that time she had taken some more Motrin and carefully stretched. Before too long she heard, "You ready to go Prentiss."

Emily turned after to see a smiling Morgan standing behind her, already changed into gym clothes.

"Let's do this."

Morgan wanted to start with takedown and arrest procedure. They passed through those tasks fairly quickly. Morgan had feedback in a couple of areas however it was nothing that would push her into remedial training or compromise her passing the assessment. Once they completed that to Morgan's satisfaction, they returned to the gym for hand to hand.

Emily knew she was holding back as they worked through the activities that Morgan wanted to cover. And she was frustrated with herself. This was not her best work and she hated not giving her all to what she was doing.

Morgan was encouraging but tough and thorough. That was until he saw the bruise on her side. He had just taken her down to the mat and was about to pin her. The impact with the mat had resulted in her shirt sliding up. It was obvious the moment he saw her side as he immediately let go of her and jumped away with a concerned look. Morgan ignored her claims of being fine and request to continue. He announced that they were going to be done for the day.

As he helped her up, Morgan repeatedly apologized. After realizing that he had assumed that he had caused it, Emily reassured him that it was nothing that he had done. From his expression and clipped 'I see' response, she knew it had been the wrong thing to say. However, she wasn't going to let him walk away believing that he had hurt her.

As she watched him walk to the locker room, Emily sighed knowing she had lost her chance, at least for today, to prove herself field ready. It was clear from Morgan's stride when he walked out of the gym that he wasn't planning on waiting for her. She also had no doubt that no matter when she returned, Hotch would already have been briefed.

Wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, Emily walked over to the locker room. Being in no rush to return to the BAU and the inevitable questions, she took her time getting ready. After she had dressed, she took some time to apply ice packs to her back and side. After delaying her return for as long as could reasonably explain, Emily packed up her bag and headed back to the BAU.

Entering the bullpen, she noticed that Morgan was working at his desk avoiding eye contact with her. Reid was fidgeting at his desk and gave her a smile as she walked past him. No sooner had she sat down at her desk then Hotch called down from his office, "Prentiss, my office now." Emily groaned and dropped her head forward before standing and walking slowly up the stairs to the catwalk.

 **####**

Hotch sat back in his chair as he watched Morgan close the office door. Looking down at the bullpen, he watched as Morgan settling in at his desk and Reid was covertly reading a book at his desk. Emily still had not returned to the bullpen. And Hotch needed to decide what he was going to say to her when she did.

He had suspected since he had seen her arrived that morning that there was something off about her. Her insistence of being fine during the briefing hadn't fooled him. Her flinch hadn't fooled anyone in a room of profilers.

Over the course of the day, Hotch had determined that she was in physical pain of some sort. Given what Morgan had just reported about what he had discovered at the gym, Hotch was sure he now knew the source of that pain.

However, that aside, Morgan had reported that they had successfully completed her takedown and arrest assessment with no major problems. They had only gotten half way through hand to hand when Morgan had halted the assessment after noticed the bruise on Emily's side.

Hotch was intrigued with Morgan's assessment that she had no major problems. Morgan was tough when doing these assessments. He knew the stakes in the field and wouldn't pass anyone unless he was confident that they had a handle on each skill.

Considering she was coming off of a desk position, he would have fully expected to have some areas of concern that would require remediation. It was encouraging for him as team leader that it wasn't the case.

Not surprising, according to Morgan, she was not pleased that he made the choice for them to stop and continued to insist that she was fine.

 **####**

Emily entered her apartment late in the evening relieved that this day was finally over. It had been an exhausting day at the end of an exhausting week. All she wanted to do was go to bed. However, that would need to wait until she took some more Motrin. Otherwise she would be paying for it tomorrow.

After dropping her bags by the door, she walked into the kitchen to heat up a frozen dinner. After eating part of the unappetizing food and taking a couple of Motrin, she decided to make it an early night and headed upstairs to her bedroom.

As she settled into bed, Emily thinking about her conversation with Hotch this afternoon.

When she had entered his office, it was clear from the look on his face that his was not pleased. As she suspected, it became clear from the tone of the conversation that Morgan had already been in to see him. And if she had had any luck of convincing him that nothing was wrong that disappeared when she winced while changing positions in her chair.

After that Emily changed the focus of the conversation. She had no intention of lying about the presence of the bruises. Lying to Hotch would have been the completely wrong decision regardless. She had no doubt that he would know. He always knew. Lying would also damaged any trust that she was starting to gain.

It just wasn't information that she was going to chose to volunteer easily without a reason. She was not going down without a fight. It was no one business but her own.

After acknowledging that yes she had a bruise. She didn't think Hotch needed to know that there were multiple bruises, Emily reiterated that she didn't mention it because it would not stop her from doing her job or completing the assessment. An assessment that she, in fact, had successfully completed ¾ of the way without drawing attention that there could be a problem. An assessment that had stopped not at her request or because she had been acting injured but because of Morgan's opinion that she couldn't continue after he had unintentionally seen a bruise.

Emily smiled inwardly when she saw him look down at his desk and nod. She move in her chair preparing to be dismissed. As Hotch raised his head and looked at her, Emily immediately knew their conversation was not over. She should have known that had seemingly gone too well. That was when he gave her a stern look and asked what had caused the bruises.

Hotch's frustration was clear when she refused to reveal what had happened. But that did not change Emily's mind about not wanting to tell him. It was embarrassing that she couldn't walk across a parking lot without getting hurt. Maybe he would further resist letting her go in the field for being a klutz. But then again he let Reid into the field so maybe it would not be a problem. But it was not a chance she was willing to take.

He was further annoyed that she hadn't seen a doctor and wasn't planning to see one. Emily had insisted that it was superficial and there was nothing a doctor could do that she wasn't already doing. Hotch stated that she didn't know how serious it actually was without being checked out. Emily responded that he was completely overreacting to a minor bruise. Hotch replied that she was intentionally minimizing her injuries because he knew she had bruising in at least 3 areas. He knew from the briefing that she had a bruise on her arm. Then Morgan mentioned noticing her side while Emily had mentioned her back.

Taking in Emily's blush, he continued on to ask her if there was anything she needed to tell him. She reiterated that it was minor, she was fine and could do her job. Emily held eye contact as he glared at her. After a couple of minutes, knowing he had no leverage to force her to tell him, Hotch dismissed her after telling her to take the rest of the day off. The meeting had ended at that point.

By the time Emily walked out of Hotch's office, she was seething. She walked across the catwalk glaring at the back of Morgan's bald head. After walking down the stairs, she had gathered her coat and bag and walked out of the bullpen without word after noticing the time.

 **####**

After he dismissed Emily and she stormed out of his office, he watched her gather her things and walk out of the bullpen. Looking up, he realized in her retreat, Emily hadn't closed his office door. He stood up and walked over and pushed the door to close, unfortunately a little harder than he intended. A few seconds later, he winced as the door slammed shut.

After sitting back down in his office chair, Hotch thought back to the conversation he had just had with Emily. He couldn't find fault with any of what Emily said. She hadn't tried to lie to him.

And she was correct in that Morgan had reported no issues with her performance on what they had completed. She wasn't required to report an injury unless it interfered with her ability to do her job and as she had demonstrated, she could still handle the physical aspects of the job.

As field agents, bumps and bruises were not uncommon. And they couldn't stop doing their jobs because of them. However, Emily hadn't been in a situation in the field where this could have happened. So then how had she gotten hurt?

The sticking point for him in the conversation had been when Emily had refused to explain how she got hurt. Not that he was surprised. It wasn't the first time he had come up against the stubborn side of Emily Prentiss. And he sighed he was sure it won't be the last.

But right now he was worried. He couldn't get out of his mind that someone had done that to her. Otherwise why wouldn't she just tell him what happened? It pained him to even think that he was going to watch another woman go through what his mother had. A woman despite his best attempts not to he still had feeling for. And after reading her file, he continued to be perplexed about what really happened that ended their relationship.

 **####**

Morgan tensed as he heard Hotch's door slam. Glancing over at Reid, he noticed the younger profiler looking around the bullpen with wide eyes trying to figure out what had happened. Turning back to the file in front of him, Morgan shook his head. Apparently he had been wrong. Strauss and Haley weren't the only people who could upset the Unit Chief.

Prentiss was on that list too. However that wasn't a surprise to any of them. There had been friction between the two of them since she joined the team. And Morgan couldn't figure out what Hotch's problem with her was. From day one she had exceeded expectation for the team. However, there was some grumbling that she seemed too perfect. And Hotch's lukewarm attitude towards Prentiss wasn't helping with her integration with the team.

For today, Morgan couldn't help but feel guilty for the latest disagreement, knowing it was because of how their gym session went. As the afternoon wore on, he had been feeling more and more guilty about it. If their positions were reversed, he would have been angry if someone did to him what he did to Prentiss. She had just shocked him when she said it wasn't a new bruise. But that wasn't an excuse. She had wanted to continue and had had no problems before that. And he needed to see her as a fellow agent first before they started working together in the field.


	2. Author's Note

As I mentioned last week, I have placed all of the oneshots on the Hotchniss storyline into one document and will continue the story there.

The new story's title is Our Unpredictable Road.


End file.
